can post in "the new york times" and diet related to an asthma attack while covering the civil war in syria. his book is a memoir. he grew up in oklahoma full places, and american lebanese family. became a reporter and his life mission was to try to explain, which is no easy thing to do. he covered more than an issue for in the course of the first marriage and death buying the family's old ramshackle house somewhere in lebanon. i forget the name of the village and takes a year off to restore the movie almost, which he does with great difficulty. the book, his memoir blends in both lebanese history and its glorious past, which is sadly destroyed or civil war as voices of personal story. so shortly before the book came out, he died. he missed about 40, 45. >> host: sarah weinman. >> guest: well, i feel looking at this list, and unmitigated searcher talk about how much i adore the book. i made a comment on twitter just kathryn booze did every single best of 2012 book it would be fine with me. it's a phenomenal piece of report it, but literature which he writes with a tremendous sense of empath